Red-legged frogs numbers dwindle

“The red-legged frog and its cousins have survived millions of years. Scientists say their numbers have declined by 40 per cent by more than 40 percent.

The Red-legged Frog

Climate change and disease are seen as the most serious threats to amphibians like the harlequin frog from Equador – specifically, a fungus known as chytridiomycosis. “The perfect storm is happening,” Vrendenburg said. “All these different factors are leading to their decline, and it’s really, really serious. We’ve been finding dead frogs by the hundreds and thousands.
‘We’re very dependent on the same environment those animals are dependent on; so like a canary going down into cave, if the canary dies, we’re next,’ he said.”

“Rana draytonii after being long included with the Northern Red-legged Frog (R. aurora) as subspecies of a single species called simply Red-legged Frog. California red-legged frogs are nearly endemic to California, only leaving the State as they enter extreme northern Baja California. This species occurs most commonly along the Northern and Southern Coast Ranges, and in isolated areas in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.” image also from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_red-legged_frog